Current Issue

MERETZ Matters

editor — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 17:50:37 +0000

A New Zionist Discourse
Yossi Beilin
Abu Vilan
Women excluded from Knesset choir
And more ....

COLUMN LEFT: Not Your Father's Kibbutz

editor — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 18:40:32 +0000

By Ralph Seliger:

Kibbutzniks now number less than two percent of the population, but kibbutzim are still a highly productive part of the economy. ...

The kibbutz needs to be understood as a generational phenomenon. ... Younger generations today do not have the intoxicating opportunity to forge a nation and a society from scratch. [Still] ... as Israel’s economy has become increasingly privatized ..., the inherent competition and inequities of the market have produced a return of young people to the kibbutz.

Scholars in kibbutz studies are ... aware of a concept called "free-riding" in which some people take advantage of the more highly developed sense of responsibility and commitment that some members have.... The kibbutz ain’t what it used to be, but it’s been around for nearly a century and may be making a comeback. Click here for summary of a talk by Gavri Bargil, co-director of the Kibbutz Movement, on changes in kibbutz management and modes of living.

Israel's Socialist Roots

editor — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 18:33:44 +0000

By Aviva Cantor

... collectivist experiments were supported by mainstream Zionist bodies for two major reasons: 1) ... a plurality of [World Zionist Organization] voters ... were in the Socialist Zionist camp.

2) ... the scarcity of resources and difficulties of the climate did not attract private capital. ...

Socialist Zionists succeeded ... in the creation of a Jewish state. They did not succeed in creating a socialist Jewish state. ... The question of why Israel became the first socialist society to make a peaceful transition to capitalism ... involves many factors which need to be explored and understood.

Reflections of an Israeli Peacenik

editor — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 18:30:57 +0000

By Dan Leon

In reborn Israel everything was happening 'for the first time in 2,000 years.' In this sense, ... Israelis found good reason to take pride in their new state.

... the belief that "there is no partner for peace" becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. In fact, however difficult the implementation, there was always a peace option.

Reminiscenses — Lighten up: Cartoons of Yitzhak Blumberg

editor — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 18:25:04 +0000

By Moshe Kagan

We decided on a wall newspaper in Hebrew to be issued about once a month. ... While we were lacking writers of humor, we had a very talented caricaturist, Yitzhak Blumberg, who captured the lighter side of our activities in drawings. I found some of his artwork in an old notebook....

We wish you a Shana tova u’metuka – a sweet and good new year!

editor — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 18:12:49 +0000

We at Meretz USA and ISRAEL HORIZONS send our heartfelt New Year’s greetings to our friends, supporters and readers. May this year be one of progress and peace!

Book Review: The Neoconning of Israel

editor — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 18:03:36 +0000

By Eli Leiter, Ph.D.
Jews and Power, Ruth R. Wisse, Schocken, 2007, 231 pp., $19.95. The Oslo Syndrome: Delusions of a People under Siege, Kenneth Levin, Smith and Kraus, Inc., 2005, 599 pp., $35.

... for Prof. Wisse, the Jewish state is in the same position ... as the vulnerable Jew in the Diaspora. It is basically a reactive posture dependent upon what other people do. ...

Let's look at delusions. ... What of writers who insist, in spite of evidence to the contrary, on presenting Israel as weak and helpless?

... psychology can be used very easily, not as an attempt at truth, but as a bludgeon to beat up your opponent.

Other Voices: When Israel and Arabs Were Allies

editor — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 17:46:15 +0000

By Dr. Peter Feinman

... the past is manipulated to suit political agendas in the present.... Arafat was playing a game of one-upmanship with the Jews. In effect he was saying: "I see your Book of Joshua claims of conquest and predate you. We were in the land first." ...

The Arabs chose to ally with their trading partner, Ahab's Israel, the leading provider of chariots to the coalition.

Director’s Column: Remembering Abie Nathan

editor — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 17:25:42 +0000

By Ron Skolnik

One of my fondest memories from my early years in Israel was of late afternoons. As the sun edged toward the horizon to make way for evening, I would turn the dial of my pre-digitized radio to 1540 AM to tune in to the "Voice of Peace" radio station and listen to the enchanting and tranquil melody by the Eagles, "I Wish You Peace," which the station played everyday at sunset.

The man responsible for the "pirate ship" from which this station broadcasted "from somewhere in the Mediterranean" (in reality, just outside Israel’s territorial waters, near Tel Aviv)– and for the message of peace that it aired between 1973 and 1993– was Abie Nathan. He passed away on August 27 at the age of 81. ... Click here for online version.

EDITOR'S ODDS & ENDS: ‘An Apology’

editor — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 17:20:45 +0000

In his article dated June 14, Uri Avnery ... referred to the dramatic public apology delivered that week by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to the aboriginal peoples of his country, for historic injustices. Avnery suggests something similar from Israel to the Palestinians.

.... My major concern is that the Palestinians also need to confront their historic errors, including having responded with all-out war to the UN partition plan of 1947, having waged war for decades with targeted attacks on unarmed civilians....

It would be great if Israel were prepared to offer such an apology to the Palestinians. It would be even better if both peoples were prepared to confront their past errors, crimes and shortcomings regarding the other. ...